LESSON SUMMARY
Our lessons vary depending on the experience of your child. After a quick assessment, the instructor will be able to tailor each minute of the lessons to the exact needs of your child in order to help them be safe, have fun, and progress quickly. The first thing we like our students to perfect is survival, making sure they will be safe whenever they are near or in water. From there we like to focus on improving their basic swimming skills such as practicing the common strokes and learning how to properly breathe while doing so. Lastly, for the more advanced students, we tend to focus on things like diving, flip turns, and all of the remaining, more complicated swim strokes.
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Each week purchased includes five 20 minute private, one on one lessons, Monday-Friday. Because we usually have 4 instructors at all times, we are able to teach up to 4 children at once. Your lessons will be at the same time each day. Rather than sign up 1 child at multiple times in the same week (10 lessons as opposed to the regular 5 that come with one purchase), we ask instead that you spread out their lessons and register for consecutive or multiple weeks of lessons. We teach ages 3-12.
OUR POLICIES
- For students who are not potty trained, please cover swim diapers with diaper covers.
- We need at least 1 week's notice for cancellations. There is an automatic $5 fee per child per week canceled. This is to cover the fees we get charged for issuing refunds and the time it takes to adjust inventory and resell the sessions. If you want to avoid this fee, we suggest you sell your lessons to a friend or via our Facebook group Hunsaker Swimming Cancellations. Please do not delete your posts in this Facebook group once your lessons sell.
- If your child becomes ill or something comes up, we are unable to cancel their lessons due to short notice. We also aren't able to reschedule or hold makeups due to our full schedule. Instead we suggest that you sell your lessons to another parent via our facebook group Hunsaker Swimming Cancellations.
In this Facebook group, we do not allow the selling of partial weeks. We allow you to give/sell lessons to other kids of yours/people you know if a schedule conflict comes up, but we do ask that the new student has some swim experience if they are only doing a partial week. For young beginners, we strongly suggest that you register them for a full week.
- Rather than sign up 1 child for multiple sessions in the same week (40 minutes lessons each day), we ask instead that you register for consecutive or multiple weeks of lessons.
- Bathroom availability is limited at our pools, and should only be used for emergencies, so please have your child go before arriving for lessons. Please keep in mind lessons are only 20 minutes.
- We encourage your children to wear rash guards. Rash guards provide better sun protection and keep our pool filters clean and running properly. If you need sunscreen, please apply at least 10 minute before your scheduled lessons, only to the areas that will be exposed to the sun (face and arms), otherwise it washes right off, clogs our filters, and fails to protects your children. Also if your child needs or wants to wear goggles, make sure they do not cover the nose.
- Weather & make-up lesson policy. If we cancel lessons due to inclement weather, we will provide a make up lessons on Saturday at your regular time. So it's best to plan on Monday through Saturday when purchasing lessons in case there is any thunder/lightning storms that force us to cancel. We are only able to issue refunds if we don't have teachers available on Saturday, or if we cancel more than 1 lesson that week because of weather. In those cases, if we had to cancel 2 lessons for example, we will teach 1 make up lesson and refund any additional canceled lessons. We often teach in the rain and cold, but make sure to have all of our pools heated extra to compensate with these conditions. We cancel only for lightning or extreme rain/temperature concerns. If lessons are cancelled, we will notify everyone on our instagram, Facebook, as well as send parents a text via the phone number on your order receipt. If you do not have a phone number on your order receipt, we will send you an email and there will be a sign on the pool when you arrive that lessons have been canceled for that time. Storms usually pass through quick so we usually cancel 2 or 3 lessons deep if we see lightning or hear loud thunder.
- We are unable to provide makeup lessons for illnesses or conflicts. Feel free to let a sibling or neighbor take your child’s time if they are unable to come to their lesson. Or you may sell them via our private Facebook group, Hunsaker Swimming Cancellations. We only allow the transfer of full weeks, no selling of single days or partial weeks is allowed. You may give partial weeks to sibling or people you know, we just ask that the replacement is no younger than 4 and has experience with lessons. New students generally need a full 5 days.
- Non-Swimmer Safety. Please close our umbrellas if the wind picks up, otherwise they will come out of their holes and/or break. Please do not let your children stand on the chairs, jump on the trampoline, or play with the umbrellas. No other students are allowed to touch or be in the water if it is not their lesson time.
- Please understand we cannot guarantee the same teachers for your children week to week. With very few exceptions, they will have the same teacher from Monday through Friday. Each member of our team is trained and qualified to teach children of all ages and skill levels.
- Crying, screaming, and struggling during lessons is not out of the ordinary especially for younger children or new swimmers. This does not bother our teachers. Sometimes parents will watch from a distance where their child can’t see them so that their child can focus better.
- Please communicate with our teachers. They are here to cater to your child’s swimming needs and capabilities. If you have certain expectations, please let your child’s teacher know at the beginning of the week. If you need to communicate with a teacher please do so during your own child's lesson time.
-We are unable to fulfill teacher requests or let parents know ahead of time which pool to sign up for because our employee schedule isn't always the same and teachers often rotate.
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REGISTRATION TIPS
- Like years past, we will be using a randomized queue system for registration. From 11:00-12:00 on April 1st everyone will be put into a waiting room. Right at noon everyone will be given a randomized ticket number and slowly let into the site in order to avoid overcrowding. Keep in mind if you visit the site at 10:00 and don't refresh until 12:02 you will be put at the back of the line. You must be in the waiting room between 11:00-12:00 tomorrow to have a chance at being close to the front of the line.
- Please have multiple cards ready in case you are having issues checking out. With so many people on the website at one time and trying to make sure things run smoothly we cannot take calls/texts during this time to help with these issues. If problems continue perhaps try using an alternate device or purchasing different lessons (in case the spots you are attempting to secure are sold out).
- This year lessons will be $90 per week, per child. We have done some local research and have found that our rates continue to be generally less than others. If you would like a discounted week, the week of July 1-5 will only be $75. This is because we will not be teaching on the 4th.
- This summer we have FIVE pools so we are hopeful that everyone gets a spot even if you are unable to sign up Friday at noon. Also if you aren't able to get the time you wanted, keep in mind we will have a handful of teachers teaching in April and May this year! Those openings do come with an additional cost due to our oldest/most experienced teachers being in the water. These will most likely be posted week to week so please keep an eye on your email, Facebook, and instagram for updates. We also will be posting August lessons at some point in early July once we know our teachers availability.
- Another reminder, the Whits End Pool parking is still outside the circle along the flint street trail, so if you want to avoid a short walk we suggest signing up at an alternate location. ALSO the Francis Circle Pool does not have a diving board, so if you want your child to practice diving, avoid registering at that location.
- Please make sure you enter your information and email correctly during checkout or you will not receive a confirmation email! And we ask that you double check your schedule before registration to make sure you sign up for a week that you know works for you, in order to avoid a cancellation fee.
- If you have a child with special needs, please sign them up in April/May or September. This is when our oldest/most experienced teacher is teaching. There is also additional cost for these lessons because of extra pool heating costs. Please note all students must be potty trained.
- We are not equipped to send lesson reminders so we ask that you add your scheduled lessons to your calendar and make sure you show up at the correct pool on the correct day. Please note that the Whits End Pool address sometimes appears on email receipts because our business address often automatically is put on receipts. The pool that you purchased lessons for will be displayed with the product name, next to the purchased week dates. Either the Francis Circle, Ramola, Smith Lane, Thomas Drive or Whits End Pool. Please attend whichever pool you purchased lessons for at your scheduled time. All pool addresses can be found on our website via the register page. Thank you!
ADDITIONAL TIPS
- If you have never worked with us before, please be aware that if your child is new to swimming lessons or water, there is a fair chance your child may be scared at first and may cry. Although it's not fun to see your child uncomfortable, it's 100% normal and we promise it gets better if you trust the process and push through it. We have had great success for well over a decade now and there are countless testimonials on our google and Facebook reviews if you'd like to hear from other parents who experienced the same thing and saw great results. We believe in pushing our students with love and patience, doing our best to help them feel comfortable and safe, but not allowing them to control the lesson or our teachers. We cannot let our amazing instructors just sit on the steps with your child or not get their face wet for an entire session because that will not get results and takes the spot away from other students ready to learn. If the instructor working with your child believes they could benefit with some extra help, they may decide to reach out to a lead manager and to attend a lesson or two to see if they are able to help.
- Also if you are concerned with your child crying, we can confidently recommend you get them into lessons asap rather than putting it off. Swimming is a very important, life saving skill, and unfortunately the longer lessons are put off, the harder a student will be to teach and the fear and anxiety of water only grows instead of going away. We have worked with many older students, and sometimes adults in our fall sessions, who had been kept out of lessons for their whole childhood and they always require many more weeks and a larger/older instructor that can hold them due to the anxiety and overthinking that comes with being older. If you put your child in as early as possible, when they become eligible (age 3) or close to that age, they will most likely get over their fears quicker and learn important swimming skills much easier, making them a lot safer in the long term
- If you have a child who is not yet eligible for lessons this year, we recommend trying to take them to a pool to play, float around, and lightly dunk them in order to get them used to the idea of water and pools. We also highly recommend pouring cups of water of your childs head every night during bath time, although they may not like it at first, if it becomes a daily routine or a game, we have seen this benefit young students tremendously and they tend to get over their fear fairly quick if you stick to it. This is because most new students don't enjoy water on their face or ears, which can take some time to overcome. But if they already are used to water on their face before they come to work with us, they will progress much faster than they would otherwise, and often won't need as many sessions.